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China announced that it launched a new rocket, a prototype next-generation crew capsule on June 25. It was the first time when the East Asian country used its new launch center to launch a rocket.

The launch took place on Saturday at 8 am. It was the first space voyage of the rocket, Long March 7, which the nation has developed for the building process of a space station. As per the officials, the crewed space station will be in running condition by the 2020s. The 174 feet tall rocket lifted off from the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, the officials added.

It is not at all easy to get up-close and personal with Jupiter, as the planet is surrounded by a belt of very intense radiation enough to explode spacecraft electronic. But NASA’s Juno spacecraft will make this daring attempt on fourth July to get close to Jupiter than any other spacecraft in history.

Officials said the first launch of redesigned Antares rocket of Orbital ATK since an engine failure decided the destiny of a mission in 2014 will probably get delayed by over 30 days till August for the completion of analysis of data obtained during a first stage hotfire test.

The hold-down firing of the two new RD-181 engines of Antares rocket, which was held on May 31, was a main preparatory step for the cargo booster’s return-to-flight, which then Orbital ATK said would take place in July with a Cygnus supply ship going towards the International Space Station.

A dark vortex has been spotted in the atmosphere of gas giant Neptune, thanks to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. It was last month when the presence of the vortex, a first on Neptune in the 21st century, was verified.

In a statement, Michael Wong, a planetary scientist at the UC Berkeley and lead researcher of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program (OPAL), confirmed that the space telescope clicked images of the vortex looming over Neptune.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is all set to explore Jupiter. As per the space agency, the probe will reach the gas giant on July 4 and begin collecting evidence of the planet’s formation and evolution. Why the mission is an important one for NASA?

Jupiter is a gas giant and such planets can’t harbor life, but still astronomers at earth are interested in exploring it. Astronomers say Jupiter isn’t able to support life, but its moon Europa may have chances to harbor life. They even believe that if our solar system has another place to support life, then it will be Europa.

The far away dwarf planet Pluto has been keeping scientists on their toes, ranging from its exotic ice to its frosty heart. A latest computer modeling has now backed the idea that the small world has a liquid ocean between its rocky core and outer icy shell.

In a press release, Kevin Stacey wrote that since last year when the New Horizon's Probe swung by Pluto, scientists have been thinking whether a liquid ocean can possibly be ‘sloshing around under its icy crust’. But a latest study, appeared in the Geophysical Research Letters, suggested that the ocean is a reality indeed.

Researchers at California Institute of Technology have detected an exoplanets that is a size of Neptune orbiting a young star about 500 light years away. The planet is dubbed as K2-33b, which is the youngest fully-developed exoplanet discovered so far. A paper published Monday in the journal Nature reported the discovery.